At the risk of sounding as though we’re carb-loading over here—which, actually, now that I’ve typed that, sounds like a pretty tasty thing to do—I present you with my second pasta dish in as many posts. I’m having a hot summer fling with Italy, but luckily, Brandon doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, I think he’s happy about it. You will be too, when you taste this.

The dish in question comes not from a cookbook, magazine, or radio show, or from a personal “Eureka!” moment at the stove, but rather from a reader comment on this very site. Last week, in response to my post on rigatoni with various permutations of onion, a very kind and knowledgeable reader named Tony left a comment calling my attention to the (possibly) ancient origins of the dish. I had forgotten that until a few centuries ago, when New World fruits and vegetables began to trickle into Europe, Italy had never seen a tomato, so its pasta sauces and accompaniments were, like last week’s rigatoni, pomodoro-less, with nary a red sauce in sight. To this day, in fact, there remain countless non-tomato sauces, though your neighborhood Italian-American joint would have you believe otherwise. Some sauces are simpler and some more imaginative, some ancient and some new. One is even built, Tony wrote, on a delicate foundation of zucchini blossoms. Lucky for us, Tony then offered a recipe.And knowing better than to look a gift horse in the mouth—or ignore fate when it appears in the form of a crate of squash blossoms at the Saturday farmers’ market—I stepped up to the stove with Tony’s notes in hand and made a meal so delicious that it shimmied its way, quite irresistibly, into a new post.

From Abruzzo by way of Italian food authority Giuliano Bugialli and one saintly reader of this website, this recipe will henceforth be a permanent resident of our small home in Seattle. Built on the color palette of a Mediterranean summer—all shades of yellow, gold, orange, red, and green—this pasta sauce is unlike anything I had tasted before: delicate but rich, earthy but somehow also ethereal, scented with the dark, floral perfume of saffron. The noodles are barely slicked with reduced broth—almost naked, it seems, until you lean in close and see that they shimmer a little amidst the sweet bits of carrot, onion, celery, and squash blossoms. These last melt into the sauce, giving up their light zucchini flavor, and become almost indiscernible to the eye—a less dramatic presentation than one might hope for, maybe, but still pretty enough to elicit a lot of sighs and plate-scraping around our table.

I call for pappardelle here, but you could really use any noodle that you like. I like pappardelle not only because I find it awfully pretty, but because its big, flat, wide shape makes a lovely surface for the light sauce to cling to. I could also envision using rigatoni, or maybe fettucine. Whatever shape you choose, be sure to use a brand that contains eggs. It makes for a sunny color and a flavor that goes well with the sauce. I chose an imported dried brand called La Romagna.

And about the broth: use a good one! What I really want to say is that you should only use homemade—from, say, the chicken stock recipe in the Zuni Café Cookbook—but I know that many of us, myself included, don’t always have time for such things. So if you must use a store-bought broth, be fussy. The canned or boxed stuff will be sub-par here; instead, ask if your local specialty store carries a good frozen or refrigerated stock. The sauce in this dish is made by reducing it, so the better it is, the better your result.

Put a large pot of salted water over high heat; this will be your pasta pot.

In a large skillet, warm a splash of olive oil and the butter over medium heat. Add the red onion, celery, carrot, and Italian parsley, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are translucent. Add the zucchini blossoms, a pinch or two of salt, and the saffron, and stir gently to mix. Add about ¾ cup of broth, and stir to combine. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the rest of the broth a splash or two at a time, taking about 5-8 minutes to add it all. Stir frequently. Allow the sauce to simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated and only a thin film of thickened broth remains in the pan. Remove from the heat.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk slightly with a fork.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta until tender but al dente. When the pasta is almost ready, place the zucchini blossom sauce back over medium heat. Use a small measuring cup to scoop up about 3 Tbs of pasta water and, whisking constantly with a fork, gradually add the hot water to the egg yolk: together, they should make a loose, pale yellow liquid. Pour this mixture into the sauce in the skillet, stirring well. Using tongs or a spider, scoop the finished pasta from its pot into the skillet, and toss with the sauce over medium heat for about 30 seconds.

Comments

That has got to be one of the most terrific responces to a wonderful comment I’ve ever seen! Inspiration is in the air.I’m thinking Molly about a new diet. I’m just going to read your blog. But, your writing is sooo good enough to eat, I’d probably still gain weight.

Yum, Orangette, your blog is such an excellent source of inspiration, and your taste quite close to mine, not to mention the PhD blues and the anthropology. Anyway, on the subject of pasta with no tomatoes here is one recipe I make in spring, sorry for the wrong seasonality but I leave in the other emisphere. Sorry also about the vagueness of quantities, I don’t write recipes down, and I invented this one on eday when I did not have anything else in the fridge:for two people as maina small bunch of asparagusa cup of shelled peasa cup of shelled broad beans (actually, doubleshelled-you can either blench them and squeeze the skin on the single bean off of remove it by hand, very zen)4 red shallots a couple of tablespoons of marjoranfarfalle pastasalt and pepperextra vergin olive oilparmesan cheeseCut the shallots and the asparagus in very thin slices, but keep the spears because they are pretty. Sautee the shallots in the olive oil in a largish skillet, and when they are transparent add the rest of the vegetables, salt and pepper to taste. Sautee until tender, does not take long, then add marjoran.At the same time cook the pasta and when it is a bit harder than al dente drain it and add it to the vegetables. Stir a minute or so. Serve with grated parmesan.Buon appetito!

Molly, Keep the carbs rollin’ sister! I made your buckwheat blueberry cake a week ago, and loved it…and I am now officially on a mission to find some zucchini blossoms so I can recreate this amazing looking pasta dish… I’d imagine this would be well worth the effort of making some homemade pappardelle. Cheers!

mmmm, i just love the sound of zucchini blossoms and even though i’ve never tried them, i can just imagine they taste like heaven. i’m definitely bookmarking this recipe for a saturday morning farmer’s market trip.

You DO tempt the taste buds, and being a lover of anything Italian, I’m conserving this recipe for use in the immediate future.I’m a regular follower of your blog, Molly and last night searched your archives for the “Molly-take-on-gazpacho” but came up empty handed. I have several recipes I’m contemplating but I look forward to having you entice us with one sometime soon, yes? 🙂Ciao, Dee

this reminds me of a favorite dish i made last summer, a risotto of teeny baby zucchini, and at the very last moment, i stirred in some sliced zucchini blossoms and garnished with a few grinds of saffron salt and a wee hint of cheeseit was delicious and surprisinly light for a risotto…thanks much for this new variation!

Hey Molly,Since the “mono-meal” is a big thing in our house, we need to fit as much healthy stuff into our pasta as will fit. This looks fabulous. And, I think we’re only going to get zucchini blossoms from our plants this year anyway – don’t know if we’ll actually get the fruit. Thanks again. We’ll try it soon.

I’m glad those who made the dish enjoyed it. All thanks to Mr Bugialli who is a genius. His recipes do not fail!Thanks Molly for your (excessively)kind words!I also made your buckwheat blueberry cake. We ate it with sweet sherry custard…

i’ve been poking around your site for ages, getting inspiration and getting overwhelmed. we had to google zucchini blossoms. but that didn’t stop me from making my own poor man’s version. (and congratulations on your recent engagement. i’ve been there, life tastes pretty good when you’re both in the same time zone. 😉

Ooh, I’ve always wanted to try zucchini blossoms. They seem so exotic, I really don’t know what to expect. This pasta looks beautiful, I love the specks of color. I’ll have to procure this glamarous ingredient and try some 😉

I have been searching the markets in vain for zucchini blossoms for weeks! Sometimes living in South Florida drives me nuts! This is what I want to make if I ever find them. Thanks to you and your reader for the lovely recipe.Julie

Julie, I know this is 12 years later, but I got zucchini blossoms at the Legion Park Farmers Market on Miami’s Upper East Side today. I’ve only found squash blossoms here in South Florida twice, but this would be the time of year to do so (since fall is our spring). Also I’m guessing if you’re brave (it’s such a zoo), you might find them at the Yellow-Green Market in Hollywood.

Good<>ness<>! I’m a disaster at keeping up with the comments lately. Ooof!Jules, I can’t wait to get <>my<> hands on more zucchini blossoms this Saturday! We’re already planning a repeat performance.Tanna, I know – inspiration is in the air! The best part of blogging is that it’s like an open door, and we can all pass things back and forth. Three cheers for all of us, doing this together.Ila, our tastes <>are<> quite similar – your improvised pasta sounds wonderful! Between all those lovely green vegetables, the shallots, the marjoram, and the parmesan cheese – well, wow. I know what I’ll be having for dinner next spring.Yes, Ellie, stash the recipe away. You never know when a bunch of zucchini blossoms will cross your path…Jess, I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed the buckwheat cake! Good, good! And now, yes, go get those zucchini blossoms.Wheresmymind, few things are so sweet as the after-a-meal coma, at work or no. Just watch out with that snoring.Bea, you know, should I ever find myself out near Boston, I just might do that! What do you think about a houseguest who comes bearing zucchini blossoms? Catherine, it’s my pleasure – but we both should be thanking Tony, actually! Ooh, and as for dessert: which to choose? I want all three. But you know, we just made some chocolate ice cream last night: I wonder if it would be total blasphemy to round out the meal with a little Americana?Christianne, you’re most welcome. And you’re making me very jealous with this talk of a trip to Italy…Kickpleat, zucchini blossoms have a lovely, very delicate zucchini flavor. Go get ’em! I’ll bet you could find some in the market this weekend – down here, it’s the very beginning of the season.So, gazpacho, Dee? Would you believe that I have not one but THREE gazpacho recipes sitting on my shelf, waiting to be tried? Now the tough part is deciding where to start! Stay tuned. I aim to please.I know, it’s hard to imagine, Lobstersquad. Life before peppers and tomatoes – and chorizo! What were you Spaniards eating then, I wonder?Ann, that sounds absolutely dreamy. Tell me, what is saffron salt? It sounds like something I should know about…Dave, I love a good mono-meal. How does Frankie feel about eating flowers – or squash blossoms, at least? I would think that it might be a pretty easy sell…Julie, I had had this particular package of pappardelle sitting around since the winter, so when I read this recipe, I was elated – a perfect reason to break it open! I just love pappardelle. Hope you and G enjoy this as much as we did.Oh, but thank <>you<>, Tony! Really. And Mr. Bugialli too, of course. And on a side note, might you be persuaded to tell us a bit more about that sweet sherry custard? My tastebuds perked up at the thought of it…Thank you, cwc. And as for your “poor man’s” version, it looks pretty darn tasty to me! And the mayonnaise tweak at the end – I would have never thought of that. On first impression it seems a bit weird, but you know, it’s really smart. It’s pretty close to an egg yolk, if you really think about it. How did it taste? Natalia, the flavor of zucchini blossoms is very delicate – exactly what I would have expected, actually, from something so small and dainty and fragile. To me, it’s sort of like zucchini with the volume turned way down, and with a teensy floral edge too. Now, go get ’em!

Whoops, Julie – we must have been typing at the same time! Sorry I left you out of the batch above. But wow, I’m so sorry to hear of your South Florida squash blossom woes. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. Somebody over there <>must<> have a good crop of zucchini plants!

There’s a gourmet store near my apartment here in NYC that sells it by the bag (I just pulled it out of the pantry so here’s what’s on the bag)Blessac Saffron Salt (1% saffron)http://www.europeanflavours.comI use a wet salt grinder to grind it up (one with a ceramic mechanism I believe)They have many other flavors as wellI adore the Vanilla Salt!enjoy!!

Hi Molly!We are carb-loading – as you put it – over here, too! I think there hasn’t been one single week over the last five years, in which we haven’t cooked pasta at least twice. Impossible! We even had a little pasta party last week. So, please keep the pasta recipes coming 🙂

Ooh, thanks for coming back with the details, Ann! I’ll have to look into ordering a bottle, or, if push comes to shove, grabbing some the next time I’m in NYC. We’re aiming to be there for Thanksgiving, so it’s not <>too<> terribly long to wait.And Nicky, I should have guessed that you two were pasta fans, given that gorgeous pink version you made a few months back! Your ravioli with buttered brioche crumbs was stunning. Maybe Brandon and I should give that a go next…

dear orangette,can you explain what the secret is about french bread?i just came back from a holiday there, the bread is so tasty and crusty, the bread i eat there, i can’t find in any other bakery, or make it myself.what do they do to the bread to make it taste so good?anne from amsterdam

Oh, Anne, that’s a big question! There are many factors involved, and their convergence determines the quality of the bread. I don’t feel qualified to give you a thorough answer, but I <>can<> say that good French (or French-style) bread depends on many things: the flour used, the type of oven, the yeast used (dried, fresh, or naturally occurring), and more. I would recommend going to your local bookstore and looking for a specialized baking book – or two or three! That’s your best bet. <>Bonne chance<>!

I just made this from summer squash blossoms picked from garden. Holy cow is all I can say. So velvety and sweet. I’ve never done a saffron-egg sauce before but definitely will improvise other vegetable combinations from my garden. The squash blossoms were divine.

Allison, I'm sad to say that Blogger (the service that hosts this blog) doesn't give me any way – or not that I know of, anyway – to offer you a printer-friendly version. I wish they would! In the meantime, I recommend that you do what I do when I want to print recipes from Blogger blogs: I highlight the text, copy it, and then paste it into a Word document. Then I print it from Word.

Yum! The sauce is savory from the reduced chicken broth, and the blossoms give it a sweet, vegetal flavor. I didn't have any saffron, but the dish is still delicious without it. And a perfect use for blossoms that have gotten a bit too limp to stuff 🙂

This was one of the best pasta recipes I've ever made. I had baby zucchini with their flowers on hand, but no red onions or home-made chicken stock. I used a regular onion and a cube of poultry stock (bouillon de volaille–I live in France). When the sauce was almost reduced, I added the thinly sliced baby zucchini. I also added a pinch of cayenne at the end. You could probably play with the recipe, adding asparagus or peas, but it was great and quite pretty. First time I've ever used the egg yoke to make a sauce. Nice change from tomato. i had very good pasta which helped as well. Nice to discover this blog. Thank you.

This was one of the best pasta recipes I've ever made. I had baby zucchini with their flowers on hand, but no red onions or home-made chicken stock. I used a regular onion and a cube of poultry stock (bouillon de volaille–I live in France). When the sauce was almost reduced, I added the thinly sliced baby zucchini. I also added a pinch of cayenne at the end. You could probably play with the recipe, adding asparagus or peas, but it was great and quite pretty. First time I've ever used the egg yoke to make a sauce. Nice change from tomato. i had very good pasta which helped as well. Nice to discover this blog. Thank you.

Ammmmmmazing! I doubled the blossom qty., skipped the egg and added a dash of fresh Serrano peppers and this last one just enhanced all flavors….DELISH, husband said, lets do it every week! Not quite sweetheart unless we add another 5 miles a day to our daily walk.

This was very tasty. I used fresh thyme instead of parsley and marigold blossoms instead of saffron because I had excess growing in my garden, and added in some garlic. I also tossed in an heirloom slicer tomato shortly before serving because I had some I needed to use up. My fiance was still raving about it the next day. We still had leftovers and he was saying I need to make it again, lol.

My children have just gobbled this up under the hot Umbrian sun! Zucchini flowers are a fraction of their cost back in the UK, so I couldn’t have made this at home. I think it’s going to be requested again while we’re here!